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Anatomy of a spoiler
Thirith
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It happens every now and then that I post something without a second thought that others would consider spoilers, yet it takes someone else telling me "Watch the spoilers, dude!" for me to realise that these things might indeed spoil the enjoyment of a story for others. Recent case in point: I posted something about a certain actor only being in the first three seasons of a specific series. In abstract terms, I absolutely see that this is a spoiler, even if it can mean a range of different things (e.g. the character dies, the character leaves, the character is recast), but you can tell me this sort of thing and my spoiler flag simply doesn't go off.
So, what I'm wondering is this: what sort of things do you consider spoilers (as in, they actually have a negative impact on your enjoyment) that most others do not? It's clear that most people would consider the information that (WARNING: FAKE SPOILER) Walter White dies at the end of Season 1 of Breaking Bad a spoiler, but there must be other kinds of spoilers that really rile you but don't set most people off.
Also, what about the flipside? Are there things commonly considered spoilers that don't bother you at all, even though you may mind spoilers in general?
Edit: Oh, and obviously: be sure to put spoilers in spoiler tags! Duh.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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Having said that it's pretty easy not to spoil things, so I don't. This position benefits from the fact that I'm like a year behind most things at any given time. And I do appreciate that I'm unlikely to run into DARTH VADER IS LUKE'S FATHER type spoilers here.
My personal spoiler policy is: If I want to watch a movie/show and I don't want it spoiled, I don't go into that movie/show's thread, period. I mean, why would I? I can't participate in the conversation since it'll mostly be about spoilered stuff I can't read, and I'll have to read it all over again after I watch so I can read the spoilers, and it only takes one accidentally mistagged spoiler to ruin the whole thing for me.
The only case I think spoilers should be used (aside from using them for comedic value, which I fully endorse, or of course covering up large sections of quoted text or images) is to hide information about upcoming movies/shows, such as you may get from "next week" trailers, interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff, etc.
But if it's an older show/media that's been discussed a lot, I accept that others might not be as conscious about spoilers (eg I'm still only half way through Fringe, so it's my responsibility to avoid spoilers, rather than get irate if someone drops a reference into conversation). I suppose I've implied a statute of limitations on spoilers there, but that kind of thing is so arbitrary.
Casting spoilers are a weird one. If you're active on social media, forums, even just entertainment news sites in general, it's hard to avoid finding out who's in what show. Another example - I was two years behind when I started House of Cards, but I knew that
On the other hand, I don't necessarily expect that courtesy! I'm the latecomer, so going into that thread, it'd entirely be my fault for reading a spoiler. So. I think people default to trying not to spoiler things for others, and that is a natural feeling and should be encouraged, but its ultimately up to the spoilee not to go where they're at risk if it matters.
It's not merely entitlement though, there's also some element that feels purely like asserting power by controlling the speech of others. That's not everyone who says "Jeez spoilers!" ever, but there are certainly some people who seem to get off on just dictating to others how to speak and what they can speak about. If they aren't complaining about an alleged spoiler they are issuing a "can we not?" or a "that's offensive". Using the desire of others to be polite in a social setting to assert their power by controlling the discussion.
tldr; some things are spoilers, some things aren't, the people who complain about them have suspect motives
Like, if two games both have a narrative of, say, time travel shenanigans with criticisms directed at the player for abusing it, but one is pretty open about it while the other is more secretive, it's really hard to just say "Spoilers for both of these games" without giving things away. This isn't always the case with plot comparisons, but I've encountered it frequently enough that it's a noteworthy issue.
I was actually going to use you and your vastly flawed ME2 & 3 playthroughs as an example of people knowing when to spoil or not. But I also think it also benefited from you burning through the game very fast, which allowed people to see the checkpoints you were at and then spoil what they wanted up to that point. Also it was kind of a rare thing, you going into the games so blind and knowing nothing despite endless talk about the series that it was something to watch, to document, to study.
And also because you didn't just scream from the rooftops for everyone to stop what they're talking about because you are just now playing the game 6 years later, which sort of happens sometimes with spoilers. Give good faith, you receive good faith.
I think if someone tells me the ending to the movie that came out in theaters this past weekend, that's on them.
My personal hard line is:
Film: When it's on Cable/Netflix, it's fair game (not counting Netflix Originals here, I'm talking like Avengers 2 coming out in theaters, then on demand, then DVD, then Starz/Netflix) That makes it about a year old and easily accessible at that point. There's no monetary excuse as to why you haven't seen it.
TV: When a season is over 2 years old. If you're more than 40 episodes behind on a show, don't get mad if you read something you haven't seen yet.
Games: If the GOTY edition has come out and currently sits on the $20 shelf (putting a game and all the DLC at about 2 years, on average)
Books: NEVER. This is my personal opinion. A book should never be ruined.
For instance, I just started Arkham Knight now that all the DLC is out and I can buy it as one complete purchase. I've purposely avoided any and all searches for Arkham Knight and stayed the fuck out of the games thread until I beat it.
I don't expect the internet to just cater to my preferences.
I don't go into the Arrow thread if I haven't seen this week's episode.
But yeah, if I'm three seasons behind on Sleepy Hollow and my buddy is all "man the end of season one when Captain Mal shows up!" I'm not going to chew his ass out for that. That's on me.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Both. I go through about 2-3 books a week so I reread a lot of stuff and it is fun the second or third time around to see what I've missed and I constantly re-watch movies, BUT I like the initial surprise too.
That's what sucks about horror. I fucking love Horror, I watch anything that comes out, even shitty VOD zombie movies, but most horror is only good for one viewing.